When one talks of African languages, one brings to mind an issue that is somewhat complex and difficult to define. African languages, simply defined, mean African vernaculars or African local tongues. They are the languages spoken by African indigenous peoples, and from this perspective they are sometimes referred to as African indigenous languages.
Africa has numerous vernaculars, estimated to be 1500-2000. Most of these languages are spoken by very few people but over the years, some of them have reached the stage of being spoken by larger communities. African languages spoken by big communities include Swahili, Arabic, Afrikaans, Amharic, Berber, Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa.
Multiplicity of African languages may pose a great challenge to the discussion at hand. There are so many languages in Africa that it becomes practically difficult to enable them to be heard all. This lack of platform is one of the factors that confine these languages to very narrow regions.
Having given a brief definition of African languages, it can be stated that language is one of the most conspicuous aspects of human culture and one of the gifts endowed to human beings by their Creator.
Every language, considered from a general perspective, is on the forefront in all human activities but unfortunately that is not the case with most African languages. At international level, African languages have proven incapable to compete with the so-called world languages. What is wrong? Here is the answer:
(i) Prioritizing foreign languages
In many corners of Africa, foreign languages take precedence over the local languages. Many African countries use foreign languages as media of commerce, trade, religion, and schooling. Even at home, most African parents communicate with their children using foreign languages, thinking that it is a sign of development.
In the middle ages, the Protestant reformers, with Martin Luther on the lead, discovered the danger of embracing a foreign language such as Latin as a medium of instruction. How was the danger dealt with?
Luther advocated translating scriptures into German and ever since German has been elevated to the position of being used in all spheres. His advocacy for using local tongue was later on useful and popular, not only in ecclesiastical circles but also in German secular literature. Candidly speaking, Chinua Achebe was not wrong when he asserted that he who lacks a mother tongue is the poorest fellow on earth.
What can independent Africa learn from Martin Luther? One of the leading lessons is the fact that Luther’s advocacy for German, a local language in his time, contributed enormously to revolutionizing and reforming the socio-cultural as well as religio-political pendulum across Europe and eventually around the whole world. It is from this angle African indigenous languages can be looked upon as effective tools of revolution and reformation, if given chance or platform.
(ii) Viewing African languages as primitive and underdeveloped
It is a pity to see that one of the factors that render African languages incapable to compete with foreign languages is the tendency – deeply rooted in history – to look at African languages as gadgets of primitiveness, ignorance, and underdevelopment. Why are these languages treated with disdain?
In a country like Zimbabwe where indigenous languages are spoken by more than 90% of the population, English is given first priority even by the black folk who claim that English is a stepping stone to knowledge and skills, better jobs and salaries, as well as greater power and influence (Wagwa 2015:1).
The Zimbabwean community is representative of most communities across Africa that have fallen into the folly of looking at African languages as inferior, incapable, outdated, and inapplicable to science and technology.
African languages are looked at as underdeveloped, disorganized and unintelligible. Some malicious critics have reached the extent of equalizing these tongues with the languages of the primates: gorillas, chimpanzees and apes. In his offensive and disputable document, My African Notebook, Albert Schweitzer said shamelessly that Africans are a sub-race – people who lack intellectual as well as emotional and mental ability compared with the white race that is civilized and superior (Crimes of The Times 2012).
Narrating his experiences in French Equatorial Africa (now Gabon and Cameroon), the racist Schweitzer who to the surprise of many Africans was given a Nobel Peace Prize in 1952, concluded that the black people and their languages are always children in thoughts and deeds – they occupy a low status in the human race and they are so inferior that they should always be taught by the white masters, using the white masters’ languages.
To most arrogant western voyagers, the myopic intruders, and the malicious and merciless invaders of Africa, Africa was a dark continent inhabited by heathens who spoke heathen languages. Why did these people consider Africa a dark continent? The answer is very simple.
Europeans and North Americans called Africa a dark continent, not because they did not know much about it but because, as Patrick Brantlinger explains, they expected to find a lot of mysteries and savagery in Africa’s interior (Brantlinger 1985). To date, Africa is still a dark continent to most westerners, and African languages are regarded as depictions of African savagery and uncouthness.
Viewing African languages as inferior to foreign languages makes some Africans shrink back, fearing sharing on the world stage the rich heritage of African languages packed in African traditional poetry, dances, riddles, proverbs, puns, folktales, customs, and legends.
An ardent research from the socio-cultural and lingual-historical viewpoint emerges with the emphasis that in all human societies there are no ‘primitive’ or vernaculars that are ‘linguistically inferior’ (Mvungi 1978:35).
(iii) One-sided language policies
What is the reason behind the fact that, over the decades, some African governments have been establishing language policies that hinder the progress or proliferation of African languages? In some African countries, fans or defenders of African languages are accused of being catalysts or promoters of regionalism, ethnicity and tribalism.
Immediately after independence, most African governments looked at African languages as hurdles on the way of building national unity. Until today, some government policy makers accuse local language propagators as being unpatriotic and anti-nationalistic. Why is it so? The answer is that the culture of nationalism and modernization which emphasizes ‘unity through uniformity’ has little tolerance for ethnicity or group identity (Harlech-Jones 2001:115).
Quite a big number of African governments discourage people from using indigenous languages, claiming that these languages mar national cohesion which reflects state nationalism. This stance is not without some critique because, in Kenya for instance, it was the local language (Kikuyu) that assisted considerably in bringing the freedom fighters to great success during the Mau Mau movement in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
The world has witnessed countries like China, Germany, and Japan making a big pace of development using indigenous languages. Testifying this, two African researchers show how a country like Japan reached high heights of technological progress through using its indigenous language (Mazrui Alamin and Ali Mazrui 1995:33-34).
(iv) Lack of African national languages
How many African countries have African national languages? With the exception of Tanzania, which very early and under the wise leadership of Mwalimu Julius K. Nyerere adopted Swahili as a national language, most African countries lack national languages chosen from one of the indigenous peoples. Besides using Swahili as a national unifying tool, Nyerere picked up this particular language because he perceived it as a language for the country’s liberation, independence and freedom (Blommaert 1999:15).
In the frenzy of the historic Arusha Declaration, Swahili was made Tanzania’s national language in 1967, and around that period it was declared the medium of instruction in primary schools and teachers’ training colleges (Puja 2003:119). Adopting Swahili as the national language and medium of instruction in Tanzania is validated by the ever-living words of the Ghanaian scholar, that in any nation, the language of instruction “in the home language or mother tongue is an instrument for the cultural and scientific empowerment of the people” (Prah 2003:17).
Contrary to other countries, Nyerere built on the option of the colonial educators who as far back as the 1920s recommended Swahili to be the lingua franca in Tanganyika because the multiplicity of vernaculars in Tanganyika “made it difficult for the government to find a common media of communication” (Lema 1980:149-150).
Unfortunately, some African nations have chosen foreign tongues as national languages. For instance, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Ghana and Nigeria have taken English as their official national languages; Angola, Mozambique and Cape Verde have opted for Portuguese; and Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Guinea Conakry have chosen French.
What would have gone wrong were all African nations to choose from one of the languages spoken by the ethnic groups living in the territorial boundaries of these nations to be their national language? Nothing! No sensible person would object if South Africa would use Zulu as its official language, Ghana Ashanti, Kenya Dholuo, Sudan Dinka, Uganda Baganda, Zimbabwe Shona, Malawi Chichewa, Congo Lingala, Nigeria Yoruba, and so and so forth.
After choosing a particular national language, the second thing would be issuing a law that all things done inside the country should be in this particular language. However, the only problem here is rivalry among the ethnic groups as to what local language is to be adopted as a national language.
African nations with African national languages such as Tanzania that adopted Swahili – estimated to be spoken by more than 50 million people – have less socio-political wrangles witnessed in other African nations.
It is encouraging to see that in East Africa Swahili is increasingly competing with foreign tongues but that is not the case with other languages in other parts of Africa. If at the national level African languages fail to compete with foreign languages like English or French, can they compete at international level? Certainly, no!
(v) Dynamics of modernism
Globalization, in the garb of modernism, is one of the greatest and cruelest capitalistic forces that throw most African languages onto the verge of extinction. Apart from the negative forces of this monster called globalization, what else is eroding the strength of African indigenous languages?
African children growing up in modern African urban centers embrace foreign languages and pay very little attention to the African languages. These children, and even their parents, have no time to stay with the old folk and learn the traditional values, as it was the case with children growing up in Africa 40 or 50 years ago.
Thus, gone are the old good and useful days when young people learned (in the African languages) African socio-cultural values in the form of proverbs, riddles, fables, aphorisms, songs, etc. from the African elderly people who were sages, philosophers and ardent propagators of African languages.
Indicating the role of African elders and the value of indigenous languages, Nelson Mandela – the African hero who spent 27 years in prison and came out smiling and pardoning even his jailers – attests that the stories, legends, myths, and fables he used to hear during his childhood contained very useful moral instructions (Mandela 2010:10).
If African indigenous tongues have been so useful since the distant past, how come they fail to compete on the international arena? And wouldn’t it be marvelous for the African repertoire of wisdom to be imparted to the world using African indigenous languages? Indeed, it would!
(vi) Linguistic neo-colonialism
How does language perpetuate colonialism in independent Africa? A study in Africa’s cultural-political history unravels the whole truth. Language-based colonialism is an obvious phenomenon in Africa because foreign languages were one of the tools for planting and reinforcing colonial domination.
Most African nations gained independence mainly in the early 1960s but one question is worth asking – are these nations really free? The answer is obvious. It is indisputable that most African countries got only flag independence.
Without mincing words, an African political analyst reminds us of the fact that “although British, French, and Portuguese colonialisms have officially come to an end in virtually all of Africa, a form of cultural imperialism has survived and continued up until the present time” (Oyegoke 2001:7).
When one looks at all corners of Africa, what does one see? One sees countries that are still under colonial fetters or neo-colonialism, to use the well-known term. Existence of Anglophone Africa (English-speaking Africa), Francophone Africa (French-speaking Africa), and Lusophone Africa (Portuguese-speaking Africa) is illustrative of this situation.
It is saddening to see that most African countries are increasingly subjected to re-colonization, by themselves and by outside nations. Many African nations “are in the process of self-colonization in the name of empowerment, access to education and globalization . . . There is mental self-colonization among Africans, which leads to a dependency syndrome. . .” (Wagwa 2015:1).
African indigenous languages fail to compete internationally because when African leaders travel around in the white master’s lands to beg, they are compelled by circumstances to use foreign languages instead of their local tongues.
When they solicit for funds, partnerships and foreign investments condition is to solicit using foreign languages. Some Africans, particularly the educated and the affluent ones think that acquiring a foreign language becomes “one of the means by which members of one class differentiate themselves from others in their own society who speak the same mother tongue” (Adejunmobi 2004:194).
In many parts of Africa, Africans distance themselves from their own people by embracing foreign languages. Foreign tongues are indeed tools of promoting superiority complex among the African elites who erroneously maintain that speaking the African vernaculars is a sign of less education and being uncivilized. The common sight in Africa are brainwashed and colonized Africans who speak foreign languages with utter mimicry, i.e. imitating the white man’s voice, movements and mannerisms.
When will African nations succeed to put at bay the intrusion of foreign nations? When will African countries be able to stand on their own feet – managing their own affairs without receiving instructions and dictations from the so-called overseas partners?
Looking at the current encroachment of foreign powers into Africa, in the near future we shall see what can be coined as Chinophone Africa (Chinese-speaking Africa), Hindophone Africa (Hindi-speaking Africa), Germanophone Africa (German-speaking Africa), Russophone Africa (Russian-speaking Africa), and Scandinophone Africa (Scandinavian-speaking Africa).
In Africa, with the robust and well-calculated establishment of Confucius Institute and probably Gandhi Institute – counterparts of the British Council and Goethe Institute – everybody realizes that foreign campaigns to throttle or strangle African languages are indeed strong and well-planned. In the near future, Africa may completely be devoid of her local languages. Most of these languages have died out and many more are on their way to extinction. There are about 52 African languages that are already extinct, in the sense that they are no longer spoken by any African ethnic group. These languages include Ngasa (Tanzania), Kwadi (Angola), Horo (Chad), Togoyo (Sudan) and Coptic (Egypt).
History has it that great conquerors, philosophers, artists, and reformers like Plato, Socrates, Alexander the Great, Martin Luther, Wolfgang Goethe, Charles Dickens, William Shakespeare, Shaban Robert, Nelson Mandela – to mention only a few – used language to win people into their points of view. Language is a steering-wheel that leads thousands, if not millions, to even unplanned direction. Language is a fishing net that catches even the most stubborn shark.
(vii) Bias of the multinationals
UNO and UN-affiliated organizations refuse to use African languages in their day-to-day activities. Most big companies, in trade and communication, refuse to use African languages in their transactions. Financial companies like the IMF and the World Bank accord negligible importance to African tongues. African languages are mostly ignored by search engines like Google, Bing and Ask.
For quite a long time, there have been hot debates about using African indigenous languages to teach subjects like Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Mathematics.The main argument heard from the opponents of this motion is that African indigenous languages lack sufficient vocabulary to teach these subjects. Thus, African indigenous languages have no place in science and technology. Why? Most multinationals still hold erroneous and false views that African languages do not qualify for world trade and international affairs.
Bluntly explained, African languages have not come of age. This is bias of the highest order. It is a notion strongly opposed by open-minded people who are convinced that an indigenous language like Swahili possesses all qualities of teaching science and technology.
What are the consequences of discarding African languages from world affairs? In the state of being ignored and marginalized, African languages lag behind the foreign languages. It is pleasant to see that the BBC, the CNN and Radio China International have short programmes in African indigenous languages, but most international radio and TV stations avoid African languages, with the same capitalistic excuse that it is risky and uneconomical to broadcast in these languages. How would the dwellers of the Western Hemisphere know and enjoy the beauty and power of African indigenous languages if they do not encounter this beauty in international advertisements and broadcastings?
Worse still, African languages are not sufficiently used by the local broadcasting corporations. How would people, Africans ad non-Africans, get and use Yoruba or Igbo or Nyakyusa or Kikamba if these languages are ignored? How can the world know the beauty of Matabele or Acholi or Bakosi or Kalenjin tongues if they remain being languages that are not heard on radio or read on newspapers?
(viii) Lack of research and publications
Serious research and publications in African languages are handful. What underlies this pathetic situation? African languages are ignored or given least attention by serious researchers and because of that information acquired from research in Africa is largely disseminated in foreign languages.
When western missionaries came to Africa, they did some research on some African languages but unfortunately the research has not been perpetuated. As a result African languages are phasing out at an alarming rate. In a study done in 1995, it was concluded that within the next 100 years most African languages in the 95% of the 6000 languages estimated to exist on earth will have died out (Monbiot 1995). A leading literary scholar is not afraid of reminding the world that the African heritage in African languages “must be researched, documented, and be incorporated into our school curricular . . . [because African] indigenous languages are being eroded very fast” (Mshingeni 2001:3).
What is the factor behind the little research and publications in the indigenous languages? One of the reasons set forth is limited market. Over and over again, it has been explained that any stuff in African languages enjoys a very limited market and many African publishers have always complained about these market constraints.
Bearing in mind the difficulties of marketing African indigenous books, the few documents in African languages published by mission publishing houses in the 19th century are indeed commendable.
Unfortunately, there has not been a serious follow-up ever since and nowadays there are very few people who take courage to publish in African indigenous languages. Even the scriptures translated into African indigenous languages are not spared the lashes of malicious critics.
Ngugi wa Thiong’o (formerly James Ngugi) of Kenya is credited for being courageous enough to venture into writing in his mother tongue, Kikuyu or Gikuyu as it is sometimes pronounced. After writing in English for a long time, he began to write in Kikuyu, one of the leading languages in Kenya, and by doing so he came up with popular books like Ngaahika Ndeenda, Caitaani Mutharaba-ini, Matigari ma Njiruungi and others.
Following his going into exile to escape persecution by Kenyan authorities, Ngugi, in collaboration with some Kikuyu men and women of letters started the journal entitled Mutiiri: Njaranda ya Miikarire. Unfortunately, like the other publications in the African vernaculars, this journal received a poor market due to the fact that very few people understand Kikuyu.
Among other factors, Ngugi decided to write in Kikuyu as a means of coming back to his people, from whom he has been isolated for decades during the period of writing in English – the result of the bad influence of colonial education. He is of the opinion that writing in the African languages brings the African writers closer to their people, as well as making their message more relevant and more meaningful in the African realities (Killam & Rowe 2000:233).
One of the aims of Ngugi wa Thiong’o to write in his indigenous language is shaking the fetters of colonialism off his shoulders as well as off the shoulders of his readers. With this purpose in mind, he wrote that famous book entitled Decolonizing the Mind, where he argues convincingly that one of the ways of getting rid of neo-colonialism is doing away with foreign languages, particularly the languages used by the nations that pacified and ruled Africa, following the obnoxious Berlin Conference in 1884/85.
Talking about meaningful poetry in this bold and relevant treatise, Ngugi argues that relevant African poetry “is the poetry composed by Africans in African languages” (Ngugi 2006:87). Isn’t that enough attestation as far as the competence of African languages is concerned?
Ngugi’s tribesman, Gakaara wa Wanjau, has published popular books in Kikuyu, such as Wa Nduuta Hingo ya Paawa, Mwandiki wa Mau Mau Ithaamirio-ini, Mihiriga ya Agikuyu, Mwandikire wa Gikuyu Karing’a, and Ugwati wa Muthungu Muiru, to mention only a few of his numerous publications. However, like most stuff written in the indigenous language, Gakaara’s books have received a little attention and unstable market due to the fact that they have not succeeded to go beyond the confines of the Kikuyu community.
Why do scripts in African languages get least appreciation from publishers? The frequently heard answer is that titles in African languages have very limited market. Apart from the more or less non-existence of books and newspapers in the African languages, there is the problem of the reading culture.
If most Africans have no time to read things written in the foreign languages, would they get time to read things in their African languages? The answer is no!
Together with the scarcity of publishers who are not ready to publish in the African languages, there are very few radio and TV stations that broadcast in the African languages. The reason given is that, like publications, broadcasting in African languages is an exercise that gets very few fans or listeners.
(ix) Failure to acquire international status
When a language gets a particular role and gains recognition in all countries, it can be said to have attained a real ‘global status’ (Crystal 1977). A language becomes global by being given an ‘official status’ or an official medium of communication (Chamberlain 2001:101). African languages lag behind foreign languages because they are accorded least recognition in their countries and as a result they fail to achieve a global rank.
(x) Lack of translators
What publishers would sanction translation of a book written in an African language unless its author is already famous? It is profitable to translate a work of a well-known writer like Ngugi wa Thiong’o, who nowadays writes in Kikuyu, because he first of all gained fame through writing in English. Despite the old adage that it is not good to judge a book by its cover, any cover bearing the name of a well-known writer like Ngugi would attract readers to demand immediate translation of the book, regardless of the fact that it is written in an African language.
Translation too, like composing original works, has an eye for market. No publishers would agree to produce a translation of a book which they are not sure of making good sales.
Hesitation to translate books or documents written in one of the African vernaculars has made their authors to remain in obscurity for many years. A good case in point is Shaaban Robert, believed to rub shoulders with African literary giants like Chinua Achebe and Ngugi wa Thiong’o. Shaaban Robert’s masterpieces like Adili na Nduguze, Kusadikika and Kufikirika were not translated during his lifetime, something that made him largely unknown to most fans and critics of African literature. Another example is Nawal el Saadawi, the female Egyptian writer who took many years to get her books written in Arabic translated into English.
To conclude, suffice it to say that to give African languages a footing in social, cultural, religious, political or scientific activities, it is imperative to know where things went wrong or – to employ Achebe’s proverbial remarks – we need to know where the rain began to beat us.
The value and role of African indigenous languages can be revived only when Africans know where and when they decided to remain docile and allow foreigners and their languages to take control. Africans must seriously tackle the problem that makes their languages impotent and act accordingly.
African languages are hoes that should be used; otherwise they will rust and get their handles eaten away by termites. If they persist being ignored and marginalized, African languages will continue being ailing and they will never compete internationally.
Given chance and platform, African languages will reach the highest heights of command and victory! Otherwise, they are destined to imminent extinction.
References
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By Godson S. Maanga
(godsonmaanga@yahoo.com)
